


One Truth

by hunters_retreat



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Dating fails, Didn't Know They Were Dating, First Dates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 13:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18033020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: There was one truth they both understood though.





	One Truth

**Author's Note:**

> Written a while back but just now getting around to posting it! Beta'd by the awesome [tinyinsignificanthumans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyInsignificantHumans/pseuds/TinyInsignificantHumans) (who is an amazing author and you should check out their writing if you haven't already!). Love having someone to whip me into shape with my fics! All mistakes are still mine :P

“This is not a date!”

“I’m not sure I agree, Fullmetal.  There is candlelight, romantic music, and certainly a heightened mood.”

Ed turned back around to glared at Roy Mustang as they tried to find their way clear of the building that was falling down around them.  “Being in the middle of a burning house, with candles melting all around us while some deranged alchemist plays violin is not a romantic night out!”

“I think you may need to lower your standards, Edward.”

 

***

 

“Does this count?” Roy asked as they walked through the field of grass towards the small lake.

Ed was mumbling under his breath, reciting really, because this was all Mustang’s fault and if they’d just taken the train like he’d suggested they wouldn’t be stuck on some backroad with nothing to eat or drink and covered in mud.

“No, it does not count,” he grumbled.

“A romantic walk through a field at night,” Roy raised a hand to the sky.  “Stargazing.”

“No.”  


***

 

“Absolutely not.”

 

***

 

“Hell no.”

 

***

 

“What the hell kind of date do you normally take people on, you Bastard?”

 

***

Ed stared at the ceiling of their unintended shelter and let out a deep breath.  It was comfortable, now that Mustang had a fire going.  The storm outside was hard enough to keep any wandering eyes from finding then, if someone happened upon the little hideaway, but the copse of trees around them made the sound of the rain gentle against the roof. 

They’d managed to avoid the men pursuing them for the moment but in the morning, they’d have to start out again, rain or no.  Tonight though, they were warm and almost dry.  Ed looked over at Mustang who was down to his boxers, a strip of Ed’s shirt torn and turned into a bandage to cover the knife wound on his arm. 

He hadn’t said a word since Ed had helped him out of his clothes and onto the bed.  It was disconcerting.  The last few times they’d been alone he’d become more and more silent.  Ed had watched, waited, and been left with the certain knowledge that he didn’t understand the workings of Mustang’s brain at all.

He understood the man well enough.  His brain was a whole other story though.  The way he thought and filled in blanks, the way he protected and cared but covered and concealed were foreign to Ed, even after all these years working together.

“You’re not going to ask this time?”

“No,” Mustang said with a heavy sigh. 

“Why the hell not?” Ed wasn’t sure if he should be affronted or relieved. 

“How many times have we tried this, Ed?”

It was never a good sign when he started to call Ed by his name. 

“I don’t know.”

“I do.  Seventeen.  Seventeen times we’ve made plans for our first date.  It’s been nine months since I kissed you.  Nine months and seventeen failed plans later and we still haven’t shared either a first date or a second kiss.”

It was meant to be a joke.  At the time, he’d wanted to tease a little and he’d pushed Mustang away, told him if he wanted a second kiss, he had to take him on a real date first.  “I told you, I’m not cheap.” 

“And I can take the point,” Mustang answered. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?  What point?”

“That this can’t work.  I don’t doubt that you want this as much as I do, but if we can’t even manage a date in nine months, Fullmetal, what does that say about us?  What does it say that you’re all I can think about but I can’t get another damn step closer?”

Mustang wasn’t even looking at him.  The whole thing was said to the ceiling.  It had been a crazy few months but Ed had never thought of what that meant for them.  The number of times they’d planned lunch and had to work through, or never made it to their reservations because they were in the wrong city pursuing a case.  Or were too injured to do more than bring over take-out and listen to the radio together.

“Roy,” he whispered the other man’s name and got up out of the chair to sit on the edge of the bed. 

He was surprised by the look in the General’s eyes when he looked back.  It was a man who had found himself wanting something he could never have.  His gaze was hungry but there was no hope there.  No belief that they would find a way.  Ed didn’t know what had happened, what had been said or done to take that from him, but it was worse than anything Ed could ever have imagined.

He took a deep breath, swallowed the lump in his throat, and made the only choice that he could.  His heart would allow no other.

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes.  This is a date.”

“Fullmetal-” his voice sounded tired and Ed did what he usually did when Mustang wasn’t listening to him.  He drove right over any objections before he could make them.

“You call me Ed when we’re on a date.  Leave the titles behind,” he chastised him.

“Ed.  This isn’t going to work.”

“That’s only because you lack imagination,” Ed said as he braced his automail arm on the other side of Roy’s waist.  He brought his other hand up and pushed the front of his hair back.  “We are on a romantic getaway.  Way better than any other first date I’ve ever been on.”

“How many have you been on?”

“Well,” Ed realized he probably should have said something before.  Maybe, it might have given Roy a little more heads up about why he kept saying no.  “This would be my first.”

“Ed?”

“I was a little busy when I was younger.  And even busier later.  And then, I went and fell in love with this idiot at work.”

“Ed,” there was something soft in his voice then and Ed smiled down at Roy. 

“So here we are, on this romantic getaway.  Nothing but candlelight and firelight to see by.  No one around for miles to interrupt us.”

“I’m injured.”

“While you recuperate from a heroic wound you received in battle and I wait on you to show how dedicated I am to your well-being.”

“We’re stripped to our boxers because our clothes are covered in blood and mud and soaked through.”  There was almost a challenge in the way Roy said it though and Ed decided it was more than worth the embarrassment of putting himself out there like this.

“Two wayward lovers, who got lost finding their destination in a sudden downpour and who have to huddle close together to stay warm through the cold night.”

Roy finally smiled.  “Where did you get all that from?”

“Alphonse has the worst taste in fiction,” Ed confessed.  “He and Gracia go to the same book club.”

And that made Roy laugh. 

“Maybe I’ve got this all wrong, Roy.  I don’t think I do this love thing right.  I fell in love before anything else.  I didn’t even like you when I realized I was in love with you.  I had sex for the first time on the couch in your office and you kissed me for the first time two weeks later on the stairs of my apartment.  We still haven’t had a first date, but we’ve been seeing each other for nine months.  Maybe the orders all mixed up, but nothing that’s happened between us in that time has made me feel less than loved.”

They’d never said it but Ed didn’t doubt.  There was too much between them.  Roy came over when he was sick and read to him when he was too tired to keep his eyes open.  Ed spent late nights at the office when Roy was bogged down and helped him get through his mounds of paperwork or listened to him as he bounced ideas around about the political machinations that Ed only knew because he’d learned from Roy.

Roy showed up at his place with take out and theory books.  Ed showed up with groceries and cooked dinner while Roy played the records Ed bought him. 

“You should always feel loved.”

“Good thing you’re on the job,” Ed said as he leaned closer.

Ed felt Roy’s fingers card through his hair as he pulled Ed down to him.  The kiss was soft, sweet.  Ed would call it worshipful if it was anyone else but he didn’t have the words to say what this felt like between them. 

It was too gentle, too honeyed, too all encompassing.  When he pulled back and looked into Roy’s eyes, he could see the same revelation. 

“I love you, Ed,” he said softly.  Ed smiled as Roy brushed the stray hairs from his face and cupped his cheek. 

“I love you too, Bastard.”

“Thought we were leaving the work title behind us?”

Ed laughed and this was more like them.  “Stop being a bastard outside of work and I’ll stop calling you one at home.”

“Guess it’s still okay to call you a pint-sized tornado with delusions of grandeur,” Roy didn’t wait for an answer but pulled Ed back towards him and Ed went willingly.  This kiss was nothing like the other.  It was fire and passion and love thick as smoke in his lungs. 

This was fingers pressed tight enough to bruise and lips bitten red and sore and kissed again just to hear the next moan.  This was love, passion, the ever-evolving state of their relationship which had never been simple.  It had never been easy. 

There was one truth they both understood though.

This love, no matter what they went through and how they got back to one another, it would always be worth it.

 

  


End file.
